DAW: Scenes/Clips vs. Track Arrangement?

[WackyZoundz]

If I create dynamic music (for video games, for example) I use scenes, otherwise I stick to classic track arrangement.

[xbitz]

I actually didn't think about it, but you can indeed capture clips in the lanes in Ableton Live

Ableton Live: Getting Creative With Take Lanes

...a new Take Lane to capture each pass, and with MIDI Arrangement Overdub enabled, takes capture successive MIDI overdubs rather than just the current input, allowing you to easily backtrack...
...Comping typically entails real‑time recording of your takes against a looping background (a rhythm section, for example), but here we’ll look at alternative ways to use Take Lanes. All the examples use clips from Live’s Core Library Pack....

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... take-lanes

noice

[HOTF]

I can't live without session view for idea creation. I switch to arrangement mode when I feel I have enough elements to make a track.

[xbitz]

btw. SongSketch also uses the Session View clips, but it creates patterns from them

[jamcat]

There is a particular workflow possible in Studio One that is the best of both worlds:

Scratchpads → Arranger Track





You can use scratchpads to create each song section in isolation, and then build an arrangement sequence in the Arranger Track Inspector. And you can easily create infinite variations of each section within the arrangement in the main Arranger page.

[_leras]

Having moved from Cubase to Bitwig recently-ish, clips/scenes are quite a novel thing for me. I find them useful to sketch out the rough early stages in a track or track section, and have experimented with sequencing clips to make a longer arrangement but I found that too mouse-clicky and fiddly and kept getting "lost" in the non-linearity. That said, I still use clips but mainly to sequence a few loops/variations which i then drop in the arrangement view, and otherwise use the clip launcher space as storage for variations on one shot fx or different yet related takes of a particular track.

Also a Bitwig user.

I like that idea of using clips to store ideas. Sometimes I'll kinda do this as if working with clips you have to be a bit careful not to overwrite anything in arrange.

If working with clips I will sometimes start with just one or two scenes with a lot of parts that I can jam with and get a feeling for where I want the song to go. After that I'll duplicate those scenes and mute or delete parts I don't want, or use a duplicate to make variations.

I'll end up with anything from 10-15 scenes that are basically lined up like an arrangement. I found a nice trick is to add a blank track and use it for scene repeat length, this can be 4, 8, 16, 32 etc then when dragging from scene to arrangement it'll take the number of bars you want.

Once you have a process, scenes can be really flexible and easy to cut paste, move around and make an arrangement. It can also be nice to have the shorter loops to jam and feel out and arrangement.

However, using scenes/clip have built in limitations and definitely constrain musicality and feel.

If you want notes to lead into a part, total pita, if you have notes that are slight ahead of time and ahead of the loop, or trail past the end of a loop also very clunky, if you want a phrase that doesn't line up with your clip, very difficult and you're steered away musically.

These things are not perfect in an arrangement view either, but you can at least duplicate two tracks and just have them overlapping and not aligned to the part loop length.

For these reasons I prefer to use arrange, especially when recording parts with real instruments and keyboards etc.

[Samiver]

I start with clips in live when just jamming and recording stuff/alternate versions of melodies etc. Once I have enough ideas for a song I move it all into arrangement view so I can visibly see the different parts of the song as it progresses.

I make edm.

[elnn]

There is a particular workflow possible in Studio One that is the best of both worlds:

Scratchpads → Arranger Track





You can use scratchpads to create each song section in isolation, and then build an arrangement sequence in the Arranger Track Inspector. And you can easily create infinite variations of each section within the arrangement in the main Arranger page.

It used to be so buggy, lost a TON of good ideas using that. I wonder if it's has solidified by now.

[ApexSoundMusic]

I'm just getting into the clip/scene based workflow. Coming from a free for all like way of arranging (Fl Studio...) I was drawn into a more linear approach for creating music. Did try it in Reason as well as Waveform (11/12) and I managed to produce a more tidy arrangement compared to what I did in FL Studio. Though this was what I was looking for, it at the same time felt a bit less quick to create something.

So that's when I tried the new Mulab version, which now also has a clip launcher but at the same time retains the classic linear arrangement. (Tried Waveform 13 as well, but the interface there is a bit more bloated and some plugins were behaving weirdly there...)

I must say that, in a way, it actually works pretty neatly this way. I find myself using the clip launcher as this sort of sketch pad where I try out various ideas, match up alternatives and create song sections while keeping my main arrangement empty. Only if I'm satisfied with the ideas I can move them to the arrangemnt (A very neat drag & drop function btw!) and then start working on details, automation, etc.

[xbitz]

another clip based method

"Key Arranger is a Max for Live device for arranging songs in Live’s Arranging view just by pressing keys on a Midi Keyboard. The Key Arranger workflow makes it easy to try out different combinations of parts and progress at your own pace. In that way, it merges the intuitive experience of the Session View with the linear workflow of the Arrangement View."



https://isotonikstudios.com/product/key ... dio-tools/